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Parsnip Stew

A hearty stew of salt pork, parsnips, potatoes, and bread, seasoned with coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Parsnip Stew

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, boil the salt pork for 15 to 20 minutes.

  2. Add the sliced parsnips and potatoes to the pot.

  3. Continue boiling until the vegetables are tender.

  4. Add slices of bread and season with coarse sea salt if needed.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Parsnip + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together353 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together434 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Parsnip + breadtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together110 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Salt pork
Renders fat and savory flavor into the cooking liquid as it boils.
Parsnips
Soften as they cook, adding body and a mild sweetness to the stew.
Potatoes
Their starch softens and thickens the cooking liquid, giving the stew body.
Bread
Soaks up liquid and helps thicken the stew as it cooks.

The step that matters

Continue boiling until the vegetables are tender.. Parsnips and potatoes must cook fully. Starch only gelatinizes and thickens the broth properly once the vegetables are soft, so undercooked vegetables leave the stew thin and firm.

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, potato, bread):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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